Daemon & Sunny

Her gown and other clothes lay scattered over the floor. The wine puddle had dried, but the silver carafe was still lying on the parquet arc in front of the forcefield-sealed window. The recipient of its denting was still in the bathroom.

If he takes me again… She didn’t know what would happen, but she did know she didn’t dare risk it again. Whatever drug still lingered in her system was urging for her to stay, to submit to his sexual expertise and his skilled domination. Forcing her aching thighs to move, she crossed to the carafe, then around the bed to the bathing room door. She hid herself to one side of it, the carafe clutched in her hands. This time, she’d swing extra hard. How she would get out from there, Sunny didn’t know, but it would be a very satisfying start. Waiting, heart pounding, Sunny steeled herself. Determinedly pushing away thoughts of just how mindblowing her initiation into pleasure had been, and how addictively compelling another round or three would be.

Shrugging into his dried, slightly wine-scented robe, Daemon opened the door, intending to close the robe before ordering a servant to bring them food…and no wine carafes, give that there was still a tender spot on his head. It was thinking about the demure-seeming Deena’s spirited attack that triggered his reflexes the moment he sensed the second one. Grabbing her arm and its already battered carafe descending again for his head, he spun her and the dented carafe around, yanking her up against his body, wrapping his arms around hers and pinning her to him. She grunted as his swift, hard grab squeezed the air out of her, her backside naked and pressed to his bared front where his robe gaped free. Daemon squeezed her wrist.

“Drop it. Drop it!” he ordered her in Imperial as she struggled futilely.

Sunny reluctantly opened her fingers. The carafe dropped and bounced on the plush carpet as she growled in her frustration.

Astor, she’s a wildcat! Daemon held her firmly as she struggled harder. He opened his mouth to tell her he was setting her free…and her hips bucked back against his own, rubbing against him. Reviving him quickly. He groaned and tried to grip her hips, hold her still, because she had been a virgin less than a day-cycle ago and had to be tender and sore. She only struggled harder.

“Let me go! Let me go!” Frantic, Sunny wriggled and writhed, trying to work free. She stilled as she felt his arousal brushing against her bottom, then arched away from him. “Let me go!”

She was denying what she was arousing in him. Daemon freed her wrist and clamped his arm over her hips, yanking her back to him. “No!”

“You have no right!” Sunny could feel him hardening at her movements and struggled to arch her hips away.

“I own you!” he growled in her ear, and stooped, parting the back of her thighs with his knee. Determined to possess her and master the fire she had rebuilt. A slow thrust slid him along her damp crevasse, once, twice, thrice, then a slight angling thrust him inside. Her shuddering, indrawn breath belied her protests, and Daemon slid out and back in again, one arm wrapped around her hips and the other up under her breasts, caging her torso and confining her arms. The possessive stance aroused him…and it apparently had aroused her as well. Daemon groaned as she tightened around him with a helpless, passionate moan. He hadn’t been this aroused by a woman in a long time; the more he had her, the more he desired her, and he didn’t want to give that up. Thrusting into her, holding her against him for his rhythmic, deep plundering, he made up his mind to keep her. “You are my concubine, Deena, and you willstay my concubine.”

Deena? Stay? “My name isSunny! And I willnot—”

Whatever she had intended to stay got lost on a caught breath as he jerked to a halt inside her, startled by her revelation. “Sunny?”

Trapped in his arms, on the edge of another orgasm, one that was frustrated by his sudden stillness, Sunny panted and answered the unspoken question in his tone. “That soddering ambassadortold me my name was Deena! It’sSundrea! And Iwill not stay!”

Daemon slipped out of her, determined to change her mind. He drove forward instead, sliding his slick erection against the pearl sheltered between her thighs. She gasped and writhed, arching her back, rubbing herself against him even more as the stimulation drove her wild. Daemon used her need against her ruthlessly. Burningly. “Youwill stay. You will be my concubine,” he added, pinning her in place as he rubbed back and forth, slick with her own moisture. With the morning edge taken off his arousal, he hoped he could outlast her long enough to tame her, or at least bow her to his will. “Say it. Say you’ll stay with me.”

“Never! Let me go—ohhh…!” Her protest got swallowed up in a swift pair of strokes that ended with an angling thrust up into her body. Pulling out slowly, he thrust forward again, rubbing against her, driving Sunny wild. “Oh…please…please…”

“Swear you’ll stay and be my concubine,” he ordered her in her ear.

She gasped, outraged that he was using her drugged body against her like this.“Never!”

He plunged up into her, rocked her hard against him three times, then slipped out and slid against her three times; she gasped and writhed, on the very brink as he thrust up again thrice, then just once across her sensitive clitoris. And pulled his hips back.

Sunny bit her lip, groaning, trembling, shaking with her need to be fulfilled.“Please!”

“Swear you’ll stay,” he growled roughly, not unaffected himself. He rubbed his throbbing, hungry shaft against the mouth of her slit, shifted forward against her pearl, and licked at the curve of her ear as he begged her to stay.“Swear it, Sunny.”

She didn’t even care what she promised anymore.“I swear!”

That was good enough for him. Stroking forward several times, making her shiver, he angled up into her and filled her in four powerful, climaxing thrusts. That was all it took for either of them. His Sunny came with him, arching back into him in a wild, shuddering cry. Trembling, weak-limbed himself, Daemon caught her as she sagged, slid reluctantly out of her heat, and scooped her up into his arms. Carrying her back to the bed, he spread her out on it, palmed a breast and tasted it a moment, then pulled his robe around him and belted it as he strode to the sitting room door.

Unlocking it, he closed the door behind him as soon as he stepped through and relocked it again. She might have given her word, but that wasn’t a guarantee she would keep it. Summoning a servant from the control panel by the door, he waited until the man arrived, clad in the blue livery of the palace.

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Fetch food for two.”

“Yes, Your Majesty—Lord Estoll requested we inform him immediately if you summoned one of us,” the man added.

“Did you?” Daemon asked, wishing his father and elder brother had lived, so that he wouldn’t be surrounded by as many nosy people, be burdened with as many demands. But then, if they hadn’t, he wouldn’t have encountered Sunny. He savored the name as the servant stammered.

“Y-yes.”

A complication of his plans for the rest of the afternoon and evening, but not a major one. “Summon Armon immediately. And bring that food.Unaltered,” Daemon added, giving the man a pointed look, in case he or anyone else misconstrued and paired Armon’s summoning with the need for another dose of t’likker spice to be added to the tray.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Will that be all?”

“Yes. Go.” He waited after the man had closed the door of his sitting room. He didn’t have long to wait. Without a knock, the Grand Chamberlain burst into his private suite. Daemon met him with a hard, pale aquamarine stare, his arms folded forbodingly over his chest. “Lord Estoll. These are my private quarters. From this moment forth, you will knock andwait for my permission before ever entering again. Do you understand?”

“But—”

“Do you understand?” He didn’t raise his voice. He simply let his cold tone speak in great volume for him.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Chastized, Lord Estoll floundered a moment, no doubt derailed from his intent on insisting Daemon follow the royal schedule once again. He started tentatively. “There is still a ball scheduled for this evening, a presentation of various nobles and their families that requires your attendance…”

Daemon closed his eyes, disgusted. “A matchmaking ball.”

“Ah…yes. One could look at it that way—”

“Cancel it.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Daemon strived for more flowery language, hoping that the lengthier explanation would have time to sink in. “As I will be otherwise occupied this evening, I will not be attending this evening’s ball. Send my regrets and best wishes to everyone, and reschedule it for another day.”

“But…but—the next free evening isn’t for a month!” Estoll protested. “You cannot be this irrespon—” His insult choked off as Daemon narrowed his eyes inroyal warning. Swallowing, the chamberlain bowed. “Forgive me, Your Majesty.” He sounded like he was trying not to choke on what he was having to swallow. “I’ll see to its rescheduling immediately.”

“Good. You’re dismissed.” That was in case the man was still being obtuse. He watched as the Grand Chamberlain bowed to him and backed out, leaving him alone. Five minutes later, the Chief Eunuch entered with a low, graceful bow.

“Your Majesty.” He straightened up with a smile, ever with a smile. “Thesaeda has been emptied, as you requested; all of the concubines, including the three new ones, have been dismissed with severance pay. I was hoping to ask you today what you wanted done with all thesaeda’s servants, once they have finished cleaning and tidying thesaeda. Do you wish a number of them reemployed elsewhere in the palace?”

Daemon considered that. If he was going to keep Sunny as his concubine, she would need to stay in thesaeda. “Select out the best of thesaeda’s staff: the best maidservants, the best guards—no, keep all of the guards. Work with Estoll to find places for as many of the rest as you can.”

Armon lifted his dark brows in surprise. “Will there be concubines in thesaeda after all?”

“One concubine. But I want her to have the best of everything,” Daemon added. “Enough servants to tend her every need…and guards who will keep her within thesaeda, until she adjusts to her new position.”

Armon smiled. “You wish to keep the slave concubine, the one the Ruyikans gave you?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Will you free her?” Armon asked, still smiling.

“No.” Daemon didn’t explain, and Armon’s smile recovered from its slight slip after a moment.

“She will be the only one there; what rank and pay will she possess?”

“Consort,” Daemon decided without needing to think; it was the highest title a concubine could have, and considered almost as good as being queen—more so in some ways, since if a concubine was called Consort, it usually meant she was more favored than the king’s wife where his affections and company were considered. “Double the pay.”

Armon’s smile faltered. “…Double, Sire?”

It would be compensation for her slavery, though perhaps inadequate, given her shown determination to be free. “As I will no longer be supporting a hundred concubines, I think I can afford it. You will see to it she is given everything she asks for.Except her freedom. And you will see that she is kept pampered and ready for me, whether I go to her or she comes to me. You may come for her in the morning,” Daemon added in dismissal, turning to enter his bedroom. He paused and looked over his shoulder. “Not too early.”

Armon smiled back in complete understanding.